"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

Monday, December 23, 2013

(Almost) 10 Months of Gemma!

Its been a while since I did an update on our littlest, so I am going to do a quick one.

Over Thanksgiving, Isla and Gemma got really sick with some sort of virus. It lasted a long time, so about 5 days into it, I finally took them to the Doctor, and Gemma was measured as having a very low weight (3rd percentile). It was almost time for her 9 month well check appointment so I moved it up from her scheduled time a few days because I was worried.

These were her stats at her well check visit:

That’s right! 4th percentile for weight and she hadn’t gained an ounce since her check at 7 months… and her head is still really big . Her Nurse Practitioner had me put her on Pediasure once a day. No one is really worried since she is growing still, eating well and sleeping well, but still… she is so little. I have a lot of friends whose babies barely gained any weight or none at all after 6 months, although they stopped gaining weight after getting to above 20 pounds. We think that Gemma is just like that, only a tinier build. I also think being sick for a week before she was weighed had something to do with the low weight since she had had a very poor appetite.

Now that she is 9 months, we give her almost everything we eat. We have been stuffing her full of food and its so funny, she has the teeniest arms and legs and her little belly sticks out so far after eating. I admit that I am not very careful about introducing new foods. We don’t have a history of food allergies in the family, and after the initial basic food introduction (carrots, peas, sweet potato, etc.), I have just been giving her whatever I can that we eat as long as it is safe. That being said, she is still primarily on food purees that I make and I have been adding cereal to them in an effort to get more calories into her. We think that she has gained at least half a pound in the past three weeks . I need to get her in and weigh her at the office.

One other thing to note – Gemma has a much darker complexion than Isla, who is very fair skinned. Both of the Ped NPs that checked her out said that she looked orange and asked me if she liked orange foods. I hadn’t noticed because I just thought it was her slightly more olive complexion. I realized that I had been giving her a lot of orange food – carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash. She loves all three of them, but she doesn’t like any green foods like peas or broccoli so I had been mixing everything with orange food. Whoops! I have been working hard to mix food she doesn’t like with other things and her skin is looking much more normal.

General info:

- She got her first teeth (the bottom two) in the middle of October! She is not showing any signs of getting other teeth.

- She started pulling up just before she turned 9 months and cruising around furniture over Thanksgiving week.

- She is FINALLY trying to crawl. She is so good at her little army crawl that I thought she wouldn’t have any motivation, but she has started pushing up and crawling regularly. I am relieved.

- She’s such a little talker! We love it. She is so funny and delightful. She is saying “mama” and “dada” about us when she sees us. She has been saying “mama” for a while, but for a little bit in there, she seemed to forget it and that it applied to me.

- She is showing some stranger anxiety. She has always just wanted me when she could see me, but now she gets upset if I leave her. She only gets left at the church and so she’s a little high maintenance there, but they don’t mind . I think she is starting to form an attachment to her pink blanket that we put her to sleep with at night.

- She is becoming much more attached to Nick. I love watching the two of them bond. He is seriously the best, most involved Daddy.

- She started clapping a few weeks ago.

- She is putting everything in her mouth and exploring everywhere and everything.

She is still sleeping about the same. She is a very light sleeper so she wakes a lot more than Isla did at night. She wakes up about once a week at night. Other than that she is sleeping through the night and napping middling to good during the day.

Isla still loves Gemma and always wants to hold her. She has started picking up Gemma whenever she gets the chance. I discourage it, but I probably don’t discourage it as much as I should! They aren’t alone really that I need to worry about it and Gemma is pretty sturdy. Gemma is not as crazy about Isla as Isla is about her, but at least she doesn’t cry when Isla comes near her anymore, ha ha. I really hope that they love each other when they grow up (and while growing up)! Isla does seem to be getting annoyed now that Gemma can get into her things and mess up her games, but I am really proud of how Isla handles it.

Here are some picture of cutie pie! We love this little treasure so much… I don’t know what I did to deserve this little sweetheart.

This is Gemma at the airport when we traveled for my Aunt’s funeral… traveling with a baby this cute is like the parting of the Red Seas, everyone makes way so you can get through first and wants to help you out.

I need to do this with her more often. She is really cute in front of mirrors!

Gemma was so good at opening presents, kids really get the hang of that young.